Delcine stopped crying at once, stopped fighting. The chain link’s new skin rippled as it squeezed tighter, but Del’s anguish was only directed at her mother when she howled out. The scent of Red Hots filled the air. But that was all. It scared me to death that my own magic would never be enough, and my fear made it that much easier to suppress the urge to use it. If I’d been looking for a reason not to try and fail, Delcine had given me one.
“The Witch of Sweets,” Una muttered. “What a joke.”
Delcine, the most beautiful girl in the world, was hunched over like a hag, in a pool of blood. She glared at Una and held out her palms. Two handfuls of the tiny cinnamon hearts that we all knew and loved from little cardboard valentine cards appeared. Una laughed at Delcine, arrogant even then, though she was the bottom rung in the Poison ladder.
The candies rose into the air, and the heart tips all grew longer and sharper, glinting like miniature red knives. The Witch of Sweets looked straight at her mother, and the little daggers rained down. They dove first at the Fire Elemental. Her screams mingled with the inhuman screech from the fleshy chain link when its turn came, and it was pierced over and over on Delcine’s leg. It finally fell to the ground, as dead as an inanimate thing should be.
It had become more than part of The Chains. It looked like a human hand.
The Fire Elemental was grunting with anger and pain. Dots of blood covered her cheeks and arms. Delcine smoothed down her leather skirt, pulled her stiletto out of the earth, and sashayed to her mother, who looked a little less immortal than usual.
“’I love your pet names for me, Mom,” Delcine said, chin raised. “Imbecilic slut, right? And what was the other thing you said? Use my magic when I must?” She looked down at her mother. “I’m suddenly feeling the need more than I used to.” She pulled a cigarette out of her bra, put it between her lips, and lit it on a flaming tendril of the Fire Elemental’s hair.
That was two years earlier, and since then the other Poisons used their powers whenever they felt like it. Even Cymbeline, for as timid as she was. All of them did it, except me. My magic was too wild, and I would drain the strongest Elemental harder, faster. I think I was the only one who loved my mother more than the power I possessed.
But it sure felt good to use it on the stairs in school that day. A light inside me had blinked on, and came out to meet the stars. And it felt good to use it the way I had—to find him. The demon. Using my magic, connecting with him, that was mine.
It felt good to have a secret.
I pulled the old Buick into the driveway, leaves drifting off the trees and swishing around the ground in the falling dark. Halloween was approaching. We’d be seventeen. When it was near dark, when the stars started to pop, I felt a pinch in my heart—something big was coming for our birthdays. If I just Wished to know what it was, would it be revealed to me?
I went out of my way to crunch leaves on my way to the house, throwing my head back to breathe in the autumn air. The stars were so bright, my eyes stung to look at them. Link jumped in my pocket, looking for my fingers.
“We can’t stay out tonight, Link,” I said.
I put my hand on the doorknob, but stopped. I loved my home, the way it felt, the way I felt in it. But once I went inside, my magic would be locked away. I couldn’t look at my mom, knowing I’d used it. She only wanted what was best for both of us, for The Chains, and I’d defied her. Guilt swelled in me. Mom was the only one to take care of me, when I was supposed to be taking care of the coven—and I felt powerless to do it. My mom never guilted me over my failure there. She let me feel powerless, and sometimes it was just what I needed.
But after using it to summon Lux, I wanted to paint the world with my magic, if just for another minute.
I took my hand off the doorknob and left the porch. I needed to see the stars. They were so still, and so full of life, and they sang to me silently. Head tilted back, I found the one I wanted, the one that wanted me to touch it. I held my hand up beside my face, the wind wrapping silver hair around my fingers. The star twitched, blinked, then fell. Closing my eyes, I saw where it streaked through the sky. I didn’t even have to Wish for it to break into a million pieces and touch my fingertips with its dust. Flipping my palm over, I let magic surge into the creases, connect to the night sky, and form the star again, tiny this time, in my hand.
And before I knew what I’d done, I’d Wished to know what Lux was doing, and if he wished he could do things like this, too.
Lux flashed in front of me like an exploding sun.
“Oh my God, you can’t be here,” I blurted out, running at him and pushing him into the woods.
“Why am I here? Stop doing this to me.”
I held him by the arms under the cover of trees, like my mother wouldn’t be able to see us if she wanted to. Mothers always know, and then you had mine. Lux’s skin was hot through his crisp shirt sleeves, and his eyes were more focused than they’d been before. This time, he wasn’t fighting for his own thoughts.
“Well, since you’re in the neighborhood, what did the Witch of Wicked Words Whisper to you?” I asked, even though I really wanted to know more about him. I hadn’t stopped thinking of him, not for a full minute. It didn’t make any sense, but despite the mess he’d brought with him, I felt lucky he was there.
He smiled beautifully at me; his lips widened first, then his teeth showed when he was ready. He turned his head like he was about to kiss me, and my breath caught in my throat, my stomach tightened, but he went for my ear instead.
“Your Vera told me to kill the Elementals,” he said. His lips against my ear were still smiling.
Chapter 9
Bile rose in my mouth, and I scattered the stardust on the ground, Wishing Lux away. Of course I’d known he’d been up to no good coming from The Gone, but to actually hear it was too much.
Then I realized, even if he wanted it, it wasn’t actually his plan to kill the Elementals. It was Vera’s. She wanted our mothers dead, mine included.
I nearly Wished that I hadn’t used my magic at all to find Lux, but that would be using more magic, and good lord, could I dig myself in any deeper?
“Mom?” I called weakly, finally going inside. It was dark, but it got dark early in autumn, and my mom knew better than to worry if I didn’t come home right after school. Always the diligent girl. Until recently. I found her hunched over the dining room table with a cup of steaming coffee. Her eyes fluttered open as I entered the room.
“Hi, baby,” she said quietly with a soft smile, wiping hair out of her face. She was in an old flannel shirt and sweatpants, and instead of looking like her usual evening-cozy self, she looked beaten. “It’s almost eight, where have you been?”
“I just needed to think,” I said, sitting. I leaned across the table to take her hand in mine. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, just tired. Drained,” she said, voice hoarse.
“Getting a cold?” I joked. The Elementals didn’t get sick.
The chains she carried rattled when her shoulders shook with a little laugh. “I just need an early bedtime tonight. I made spaghetti and meatballs. Knew you’d be hungry.”
“Perfect,” I said with a pleased groan. I jumped up, heading for the stove. Stress eating. Awesome.
“You’ve got some spring in your step there, don’t you?” she chuckled. She was shaking ever so slightly. Had I done that?
I stopped, holding the spoon over the pot. The heat felt like it would eat me alive at that moment. “Yeah, I guess I feel pretty good,” I whispered.
“Well, good,” Mom said, groaning as she stood. She kissed me on the cheek and rested her forehead against my temple. “Love you. Going to bed. So you don’t have to watch my TV shows.”
I forced out a laugh, and kissed her on the cheek. Wishing had made me giddy on top of my general, neverending anxiety, and I was being obnoxious. “I love you, Mom. So much.” Head down, but with a simple smile still on her lips, she plodded up the stairs to bed.
I ate my spaghetti and meatballs, wincing at how much they tasted like love and home, with mechanical guilt. I stared out the window, running over in my head that Vera wanted to kill our mothers, and the demons wanted to kill our mothers. I tried not to obsess about what I knew to be true. That just those small uses of my magic had weakened my invincible mother.
I was destroying her already.
“You look like shit,” Una said as soon when she saw me in the parking lot.
“Thanks, shit is the look I was going for,” I said, pushing my sunglasses up on my nose. I hadn’t slept at all, thinking of how fast my stupid little life had become unmanageable. One of our own wanted to kill all of our mothers, and she’d appealed to the only being that could make it happen. Though I apparently was doing my share, too. I didn’t know what The Chains would be like without the Elementals, but I definitely didn’t want to learn by having to control them without Mom.
I pulled Una by the sleeve toward my locker, tearing a hole in her white lace shirt. She punched me in the arm.
“What the hell is going on with you, Celeste?” she shrieked. Everyone avoided us, as usual.
Truth was, I didn’t know what I was going to tell her, but I had to tell her something. I regretted right away that I hadn’t found Cymbeline first.
“Um, I used my powers yesterday a little, and it made my mom feel crappy.”
Una stared at me, eyes ringed in less makeup than the day before. Like the black eye was too big to hide. “Yeah? And?”
“I don’t know, I feel bad. And I’m worried that if we have to use our powers to fight Lu—the demon boy, that we’re going to really hurt the Elementals.”
She licked her lips, rolled her eyes. “Look, they’re immortal, and this is what we’re made for. If they get weaker, then too bad. Maybe they weren’t meant to be stronger than us.” She pointed to her eye.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my cheeks getting hot. “My mom’s not like that, though.”
Una laughed. “Lucky you. But my mother’s a whirling dervish of asshole, and I think Empty Things wouldn’t give a crap if her mom was less powerful, either. The Fire Elemental is a bitch of soap opera proportions, and the Earth Elemental might be more screwed up than Vera; we could all use her to be magicked down. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for us to be the powerful ones in this coven.”
The bell rang, but Una watched me like she didn’t hear it. “Look, the rest of us use our powers all the time because that’s what they’re for and the Elementals will still live forever. Last I checked, the Poisons won’t. So screw them. You can’t be a mommy’s girl forever, Star Witch.”
She turned to leave me, and I grabbed her again, ripping her shirt more.
“Dammit, Celeste!” She shrugged and ripped the sleeve off, raising an eyebrow triumphantly. “What now?”
“I know what Vera Whispered to the demon,” I blurted.
She grinned. “You Wished to know, didn’t you?” she said, tongue hanging out like I’d just told her a dirty joke. “Nice. That had to take some work, some serious energy.” She was wrong; it didn’t. “So, spill it. What did the stars tell you she said?”
Not the stars, the culprit himself. “She told him to kill the Elementals.”
Una nodded, unimpressed. “Not all that exciting, since we know that’s probably why he’s here in the first place. What else would he be here for, to get in Delcine’s pants?”
The hall had emptied and the second bell was ringing. Late again. “How are we supposed to protect The Chains if one of us is working against our leaders?”
“Our leaders work against us constantly. This whole don’t use your magic thing is crap! They do it just to keep us under their thumbs. Open your eyes, Celeste! Get used to using your magic because if the demon takes out the Elementals, we run this show. Our families are at war,” she said. “The Cold War between us is more dangerous than the one with the demons. Vera obviously gets it. I get it. When will you?” She hid her voice from no one, and her eyes turned a muddled dark yellow the color of her bruise. The color spread to her eyelashes, then mixed with the black eye, up to her forehead and her hair, until her entirety was that color. The color that screamed ‘oppression’ at me as if it had a voice of its own.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to see through the alien color to talk to her. “We can’t plot against our own mothers. What would happen to us without them?”
Una sneered. “I’m too busy worrying about what will happen to me with them. I’m taking my future out of the Elementals’ hands because I don’t have much of one with them. Look at what my mom did to me just for meeting with the coven privately, once. They don’t want us together because we scare them. If The Chains need my super special power then my mom wouldn’t be willing to beat it out of me when the mood suits. Maybe we need to work with this demon so they won’t own us anymore.”
Her words hung in the air, the sickening color her skin had become dissipating as she became sadder.
“I’m sorry, Una.”
“I wasn’t looking for sympathy. I was looking for you to wake the fuck up and take the wheel.” She left for class, white heels clicking down the hall.
Lux was in my first class. It wasn’t lost on me how utterly insane it was that he went to classes. Of all the things he could do, being the first demon to break through The Chains, and he goes to high school?
Obviously, it was where he’d find the Poisons. Unless Delcine was ditching and Una had been arrested. Where else would he go?
To kill your mother, I thought.
He turned in his chair to look straight at me. Mitch Langford was between us, but Lux’s eyes may as well have been an inch away, the way they tore into me. Mitch craned his neck and looked around him at the chalkboard.
“Stop looking at me,” I hissed to the demon.
“No,” he said.
I looked at his clenched fist in his lap. “How did you get that?” I said, nodding my head at the chain link he clutched. “Those are our things.”
“I’m not telling.”
I rolled my eyes, and leaned back in my chair. I tried to look around Lux like Mitch had, but the demon wasn’t staring at Mitch like he wanted to rip his throat out and consume his soul.
Lux’s head ticked to one side, like he was shaking a bug out of his ear. “Destruction isn’t absolute, and there’s more than one way to do it,” he muttered, eyes darting around the floor. Then he winced, and focused on me again. “You want to be alone with me,” he said. He’d turned completely around in his chair, and he was speaking only to me, not to whatever—whoever—was in his head. I could tell because he smiled at me with a deviousness that only a reckless boy could pull off. Mitch was still looking over his head.
“Mitch,” I whispered. No response. I snapped my fingers next to his head, and not only did he not notice, but nobody near us noticed either. I narrowed my eyes on Lux, fear prickling up my neck. “Are you using—magic?”
Magic was the only thing we had over the demons, the only thing that their brutal strength couldn’t withstand. If Lux could use magic, then The Chains were in even more danger than I thought.
Lux scoffed at me. “Of course I’m not using magic,” he said, emphasizing the word like I’d suggested he used a cat box. “That’s you, witchy girl. You want to be alone with me. You’re wishing for it right now. You don’t know it, but I do. Your wish has life, buds with promise. Soul.”
“Good God.” There was nothing I wanted less than for him to know things about my power that I didn’t. I couldn’t be so transparent, risk The Chains, all of our safety because of a demon crush. But there was no denying that at that very moment, I was struggling not to give in to the Wish that itched to be granted.
“I know the things you want,” he went on, slick, sly and threatening, head tipped back to show me a slightly dimpled chin, hands in fists at the ends of his suit jacket sleeves. “That’s a magic all my own.”
He snatched the chai
n link up close to his chest with a filthy smile. “It’s mine now.” His eyelids fluttered. “It’s not greed she wants it for, it’s fear.” The sadness of it was too much to bear.
“Who are you talking to?” I whispered.
“You’re the one under the spell,” he hissed, erasing my pity for him. I slammed my hand down on the desk, and Mitch snapped his head around, shocked. Apparently, I no longer wished to be alone with Lux.
“You all right?” Mitch said. He’d never spoken to me. I didn’t think the football team was allowed to talk to a girl like me.
Smiling, I said, “Yeah, Mitch, I’m good. Thanks a lot.” I nervously tucked hair behind my ear, and he blinked, looking at me for a second like—like he thought I was pretty.
“Okay.” He looked at me for another minute, and we both smiled awkwardly, that half-laugh-smile when you have no idea why you haven’t stopped looking. He raised his eyebrows and turned back to face the teacher.
Lux’s eyes were boiling hot when he looked at Mitch, who still seemed to not know Lux was there. The football player had to wipe a bead of sweat off his forehead.
“Stop it, what are you looking at him like that for?”
The demon’s black eyes caught mine. “He’s made of nothing,” he said.
“What the hell?” Mitch suddenly saw Lux, and was leaning away from him, as well he should. Lux was smoking. Not a cigarette—his body. Smoke rose from his shoulders, curled up from his arms, his eyes glittering through the haze.
It was as eerily beautiful as a haunted house.
“Lux,” I said in a low, cajoling voice. “He’s a nice guy. Leave him alone.”
The demon shook his head, and I saw half a dozen other faces flash into his own, trying to morph and come through. I let out a whimper and the smoke got thicker.
Mitch yelped and jumped up, shaking his hand wildly; it was bright red. There was a black spot on his desk in the shape of his palm. The rest of the class was oblivious. Classic masking by The Chains; proof that they existed for a reason; no questions, no nightmares, no magic for the ordinary.
The Wind Between Worlds Page 6
